a meteor crashed in central russia injuring over twelve hundred people who got firsthand accounts from our special report coming up in just a few seconds from here on r.t. . tit for tat currency clashes and the euro zone's plight occupy the hearts and minds of financial decision makers meeting here in moscow. and president obama's candidate for defense secretary is a republican senator say they don't know enough about the man heading for the pentagon.

live from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with the online on screen twenty four hours a day picture this it's eight fifty one in the morning and a mid size city east of the urals in central russia when the sky is lit up by the fall off of a meteorite about to smash into its final resting place here on earth right in the middle of russia well it has got a firsthand account from a man who witnessed the dramatic arrival. big bright like he was shining across the sky you know blinding brighter than the sun and then it was followed by a huge. explosion you know about a minute or so later that broke last and everything on the light fixtures were

swaying back and forth and i at that point when looked out the window and i saw this giant streak going across the sky like the tail of the cloud of what what had just happened and i thought at that point i knew it was something that came from the sky immediately called one of my teammates who lives in my building and i you know i couldn't get through to him my phone and work so i was a little bit scared at that point. well unsurprisingly the meteor triggered huge panic among people in russia's urals it took a while before it became clear that this was actually a space rock streaking across the sky and crashing into r.t. if you want to pick it up he's just arrived there in the affected region a terrifying experience of course for the people where you are now so tell us exactly what happened you go what have you heard from them. all this was right about the time when most people were already at work the children were in schools

and in kindergartens and all of the sudden this extremely bright flash of light one man told me that it actually hurt even looking at it and then this object moving through the skies without any saudi leaving this clear trail of smoke then it disappeared and was followed by a series of massive explosions which literally a rocked the whole city sending pieces of glass flying everywhere and well many people managed to actually fill them what was going on many of these videos are now online here is the one actually picturing the moment of one of the explosions. so it's clearly heard the sounds of glass and the alarms going off it's like a scene from a science fire movie but happening in reality obviously it's

a shock to the residents off chile and scanned the nearby areas in the first few hours before long lines didn't work probably people were trying to reach each other ask what was going on and all these rumors started spreading that it could have been an airplane or a satellite which went down a meteor or even one all the way up to the start of the end of the world and actually artie's documentary crew was filming here in the area right at this time let's listen to what they have to see about what they. we saw. that we saw a huge hill in the sky light from an airplane and then there was a bright fire and an explosion but the feeling was like the earth shattering we thought a military jets may have crashed or that it was some manmade disaster it was a relief to find out it was a natural phenomena anywhere except. i was told that a plane crashed right into our building then we were told that a wall has been partly dislodged and metal structures inside of

a band by the blast wave it was very scary. and extraordinary footage there from the documentary team who happened to be there just at the right time to capture all of that you got we're now reporting that over a thousand people have been injured how were they hurt. unfortunately over twelve hundred people were injured including over two hundred children but these injuries are mostly minor and connected with these pieces of go out flying around everywhere and fortunately there are no feet audi's nobody was killed and what hilly this the media were didn't hit any industrial facilities which there are so many of in this area. part is you got to is going to thanks very much indeed for that update live from chelyabinsk. well initial speculation as to the causes of the flashes in the sky went as far as suggesting a nuclear disaster may be to blame earlier discussed with r.t. lindsey france why exactly people did fear the worst. if you look at the area and

its history you begin to understand why people are actually expressing relief at the fact that this was a rock falling from the sky and not a nuclear disaster there are seven nuclear fuel plants in that area in fact during soviet times it was sort of a nuclear playground for scientists it's where a lot of things were tested and nuclear experiments were done and there were actually two manmade nuclear disasters there one in the fifty's and one in the sixty's so when you're driving to work or picking up your daycare and you see a huge bright flash and you hear an impact like this imagine what you think if you live there not exactly the place you think. you're should be total getting but of course interesting to know this region has experienced this sort of thing before yes it seems to be a magnet it's such a mystery to a layman like us who have no idea why something like a meteor would be so very attracted to eastern russia to siberia and even to southern russia one of the most famous meteorites ever to hit in one thousand eight

the famous. meteor that they hit out in the very far east it cleared two thousand square kilometers of forest land it's shockingly huge and less than twenty years later another another meteor one nine hundred forty seven another and then another ten years ago in siberia at these were huge events. one of the children. there are very very slim in fact it's extremely rare to hear of anything there has been one case of a woman being injured by a meteorite falling through her house this happened in the u.s. state of alabama in the one nine hundred fifty s. she was napping it's all right through the roof hit her on the arm. of her grady professor of planetary sciences at the university total to live there's no need to worry that more could follow this explosion. these things happen all the time. they sonic boom that you played a recording of was obviously just immense and it was the boom shattering

glass and causing that it was the boom that caused the destruction not the actual landing of the meteorite when the made it landed i believe it's landed in a lake it didn't do any damage so it's it is amazing explosion in the atmosphere is it breaks the sound barrier but that causes the problem you should not worry about something else coming from this particular object i mean this is this particular thing that is for lennon as landed there's nothing else going to be chasing down its tail so there's there's no other meteorite going to be coming from this particular object. well on r.t. dot com we have live updates on this meteor strike including how some enterprising locals are already cashing in some are trying to sell parts of the crashed media online the most expensive being offered for ten thousand dollars would you believe that of course even if someone is willing to defend to their pocket for this

there's no way to verify whether you're buying a piece of meat right or of course just a rusty old stone but jokes aside scientists say that was indeed the largest recorded object to strike the earth's surface in about a century and we've got some more statistics for you on this latest piece of rock hitting planet earth it's estimated weight was about forty tons when it approached our planet before it actually then broke up into much smaller pieces it was approaching a speed of thirty kilometers per second the experts say that when it exploded it released a huge amount of energy making the blast even more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by north korea just a few days ago and specialist a current examining a crater with a width of six meters where a piece of the meteor supposedly crashed more information throughout the day for you on this here on r.t. .

a potential currency war and the european debt crisis are dominating a meeting of finance chiefs from some of the world's biggest economies and moscow for russia the gathering is seen as a launch pad for the g twenty summit later this year on his lucy couple of has been following discussions in the kremlin today. in fact a lot of conflicting statements have been said about this talk of the impending looming currency war which has led some folks some market watchers to be quite confused as to what we'll actually see coming out of this g. twenty talks here in moscow now at the center of the whole controversy of crisis is japan due to its aggressive monetary and fiscal policies it has seen a weakening of the and so what this has resulted in this essentially a clash between the countries very little consensus we did hear from a russian finance minister. who has said that this is certainly an important issue

that of currencies that is very much on the table but at the very same time we've seen other world leaders come up and say that you know what currency wars aren't really a threat they're trying to calm down the market to some have even questioned whether japan's actions constitute as a manipulation of the currency basically when a country is in the dire fiscal situation such as of course as we all know many countries are today like japan for instance is one option that a country house is to devalue its currency so making something like this a twenty dollar bill worth less you can do that by a variety of means for example by printing cash because why would you want to do that when you currency is worth less your manufactured goods are cheaper on the market and that gives you a temporary boost in the economy which could be pretty critical in tough times like this now what we've actually seen the fear here is that when a country does that your trading partner strike back they say hey we're going to

lower the value of our currency and that sets off a currency war such as the one that we saw in the one nine hundred thirty s. which has led to the great depression now japan insists that it is simply trying to stimulate its quantum e it's not doing anything to prompt a full scale currency war of course no country here wants to see that but the reason that we're seeing so much disagreement and so little consensus among the countries is that you know what for example the united states its policy isn't all . difference the fed in the u.s. has been printing money like crazy so these developed countries don't really see any incentive in isolating japan in trying to really squeeze down this currency manipulation issue because they don't want to mess around with their economies essentially so that is really the crux of the issue you see coming off they're not business to closely watching the meeting of the g twenty finance heads. business correspondent. has more on what's catching the attention the other issue that's

being actively discussed by the finance ministers here in the last go is the of the so-called financial transaction tax in europe that the european commission claims will bring in additional thirty five billion euro to the european talk for hours earlier today i actually spoke to the head of the o.e.c.d. on t.v. who you know who said that this measure would only work if all of the world's leading economies would agree to it and he explained why you could watch that entire interview later on on r c and of course all the details of the g twenty finance ministers meeting it coming to you in the business bulletin at eighteen thirty g.m.t. . here with. still to come in the program libya the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled. setting up roadblocks across the country nato forces gathering in the capital as

a number of those protesting against the new government increases. in the. fuel offices means. you. see. if you're away from. the. wealthy british.

economy. to build a new. mission to teach me. he continues now here in r.t. in the u.s. senate republicans have stalled an attempt by the white house to make chuck hagel the secretary of defense he fell to vote short the senate has decided to win some time to find out more about him he's going to explains. those who blocked the vote

on chuck hagel nomination this thursday know very well that he will eventually be confirmed as defense secretary there are enough votes in the senate to confirm him but the stalling of the vote together with the humiliating treatment that the senators gave chuck hagel two weeks ago at his confirmation hearing this whole process is seen as a message all by itself those lawmakers showed that they could crush anyone who would allow themselves to dissent from washington's core foreign policy beliefs chuck hagel remarks at the confirmation hearing disappointed even his supporters during the hearing which to many seemed like an inclination mr hay go had to backtrack on many of the statements he had made before including that war with iran should not be an option including his criticism of israel's actions and some other foreign policy views that he had expressed as a senator so throughout that long an exhausting hearing mr hague kept apologizing for much of the previous statements he had taken from previous positions he had taken and he bent backwards to show how quote unquote mainstream his views are in the senator's case kept accusing him of not being again quote unquote mainstream

enough to get the job chuck hagel swore to defend basically all of washington's foreign policy orthodoxies his confirmation process has been humiliating in many ways than it demonstrated the state of u.s. foreign policy of policy basically intolerant of an ill targeted vision alternative claude having said all that the president's decision to nominate chuck hagel of course knowing the position chuck hagel had taken before was also seen as a message president obama had said previously that there is too much of your talk going on and maybe by nominating chuck hagel he wanted to play down because too many people here in washington are too eager to talk war just during the confirmation hearing the word war was mentioned one hundred twenty times the word iran one hundred eight times by comparison of ghana's than the war that the u.s. is fighting right now just twenty six mentions of course those are just words but they may very well show how eager many many in washington are to discuss new wars

without even having finished the old ones. head for british m.p.'s he was stressed or depressed and we got the story of why politicians will soon be getting free mental health treatment with even having to leave westminster. plus a top secret documents surfaces revealing his plans for military involvement in mali you know if you don't call me lift the lid on the plans of the world's most feared terror network. libya is braced for fresh unrest the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled gadhafi is being held under the threat of violence security is tight and foreigners are leaving all mess the first protests against the current government are expected in benghazi the birthplace of the revolution were for more than a store and now joined by dr abraham a loose she's a political analyst and professor at the ultimate university in amman well foreigners are fleeing the country borders with egypt and tunisia have been closed

doesn't look like war as if they're preparing for violence rather than celebrations there in libya. good evening. to what we have seen over the last two years in libya is that this integration of a new form of sun throw control paving the way for the fragmentation of the country into three states at the same time the lawlessness in the country there's an outgrowth of fundamentalism of the criminal that has spilled over and somali as we have seen over the last couple of months a little bit. more than two months and have the same time we have this but sort of . strife breaking out between the front militias and the country so really what is taking place now is what was planned for libya to begin with as we have

seen and every country that was overrun by. who or sis or. forces from somalia to iraq in every single case we have witness the this monster ling of the sun thrown state upon our clothes. setting up the country for fragmentation on them but what does that mean for grace so what does fragmentation and the disintegration achieve why they would those external force is wont to play a country to just collapse like that one of the intentions. we're also seeing this in syria actually right now on the thirty on excuses or pretexts in fact this is part of the plan for a new middle east this would enable israel to become the regional employer which would not be possible if you heard paula full out up some states and

said instead you've got to have a whole bunch of states some of which would be sunny some shit it's some coptic some caught of there some modern my daughters etc etc etc the point is to pave the way for imperialist control pure and simple the point is to change and abundant country into a deep in the country this has been the exercise that was protestant and one country after another for different reasons always the excuse is the most the same time human rights and mind you they have exercise dissaving type of thing with the former soviet union and now with russia. but you could say nato is there helping at the moment from some britain they've offered to help libya protect its borders there are nato forces now to provide security during these protests during

the second anniversary celebrations as as they're called but are you saying that they're there not to help but actually to takeover is that the main ambition. well they need not take over the directly but they're setting up conditions so they that their control would be a problem i mean let's remember here before the bombardment of libya before killing over one hundred and thirty thousand libyans via strikes or supporting criminal militias on the ground we did not need nato forces be they french or british forces to secure the borders with tunisia or egypt we didn't need that. that bombardment of the country and their support of the fundamentalist of the cellophane jihad those is what create the pretext for their continued existence in

libya again the word imperialism does not necessarily mean the wreck lost control imperialism means the tendency of be a proxy governments or militias and that's what we have in libya right now. we have a lead to islamic governments but governments with with plural with an ass because really what they're setting up here is several governments not just one central government really what what they're there to do is to secure the continuation of internal strife as happened in somalia iraq afghanistan the security and stability quote unquote of the proxy rulers that they have stopped list in libya dr abraham aleutian political analyst professor at these at and a university in amman thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you you thank. or to some other international news now here in south africa athletics

superstar oscar pistorius has been formally charged with the murder of his girlfriend the man known as the blade runner will be held in custody until court hearings begin on tuesday. was shot dead at the paralympians house on thursday and the suburbs of her toria. thousands of anti-government protesters have packed major highway in the bahraini capital of manama today after a sixteen year old protester and a police officer died during demonstrations marking the second anniversary of the country's uprising two years ago protests in the country began to demand more freedoms and rights for the shia majority in a nation run by so many. activists in syria certainly one hundred fifty rebels and government soldiers have been killed in the last two days of heavy fighting in the northern city of aleppo it began on wednesday as rebels hit the city's civilian airport in a nearby military airfield control of the international airport and provide a strategic advantage against president assad's forces the conflict in syria's loss

of almost two years now with the death toll already over sixty thousand. the british government's program of cuts has resulted in a drastic drop in the number of police officers to the lowest level in over a decade the radical reform package is already spot many security questions. have a chance to ask in peace on both sides of the argument if the fears are reasonable . in the number of police officers up to the lowest levels for eleven years is the impact of a twenty percent cut and whitehall funding to police budgets takes effect which is think more about these. joined by conservative m.p. and britain and labor and. thank you very much to both of you for joining us tim i'm going to start with a lot of the piece that we were speaking with we've got is a bit of you've got these reforms but at the same time they see the number of police. and police. i mean it's quite confusing time i think for police to what's

being expected. i understand that there may be slight consolation but given the battering the reputation of the police is hard over recent months the government had to take steps to shore up the reputation and terms of morale. of the police service quite dramatically in my part of east london we've seen over one hundred fifty uniform stuff go in the past two years productions in crime which we've seen year on year for six years and reverse and for the past two years have been an increase in crime last year of nine percent saw some parts of the country the cuts are being imposed are effect saying the safety of people on the streets. are the lowest level of police now for eleven years. so i may not know the the police are having to take their share of the of the spending reductions along with the rest of the public sector to get the deficit under control and what we're actually seeing is it's not about police numbers it's what you do with the police

or innovative ways of maintaining a police presence on the streets and jim a home for to have a increase in crime in his constituency but the facts are that across the country on average last year crime fell by eight percent and in fact it fell in my force in leicestershire by eight percent as well so we are seeing a overall reduction in crime across the country at the same time we're cutting police numbers but they're doing innovative things like sharing back office services because the forces. to save money and keep those place out on the streets where people want to be sort of filling in paperwork and all that with red china it's not just the police integrity it's the public perception of the police integrity and the reforms will help to improve the public perception of prison time which also important right thank you very very much for joining us you can join in our debate online we've also been on twitter a lot of the public have been getting involved in this debate as well as members of the police force of police reform to join in the debate about the latest police reforms. they will be about with the business but the news too much to say with more for you in about half an hour from now i've got business on my mind because

kate is here in the studio and that is what is next here on r.t. now it's a big day in the course of moscow hosting the g twenty leaders you're talking about no doubt but other things happening of course in your business i mean that's the dominating thing as you would imagine as you would expect but there's other things going on the russian stock market has. today that's big news i'll give you market reaction to that as well as. in ukraine was a day and could be on the horizon tell you what about it bill often back in the business ok thanks very much in the. us. today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. showing operations around the day.

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